South Africa

South Africa is synonymous with crime in the eyes of many--as evidenced by the recent mugging of a TV crew live on camera--but for the press, a more sinister threat to freedom lies in the growing number of cases where it is the police, in flagrant denial of their orders, who intimidate and threaten journalists, forcing them to delete photographs of police on the job.

Protests against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdowere held in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and parts of Africa over the weekend, as crowds demonstrated against the magazine's portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad, according to news reports.

Freedom of expression advocates in South Africa are
concerned that the new Ministry of Communications, announced by President Jacob
Zuma when he unveiled his cabinet on May 25, will compromise the independence
of the public broadcaster and serve as a propaganda office.

This week, South Africans go to the polls for their fifth democratic
elections since 1994, but despite constitutional guarantees of media freedom,
the vast majority of South Africans who vote will do so informed only by the positive
news and information carried by a public broadcaster widely criticized
for its partiality to the ruling party.

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The South African Broadcasting Corporation is in the news for not airing a politically
sensitive documentary that details allegations of apartheid-era theft of public
funds. The public broadcaster, which had commissioned the film, has also refused
to sell the rights back to the filmmaker and has filed a lawsuit demanding she turn
over her raw footage and accusing her of breaching copyright by staging private
screenings.

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From Cape Town to Lilongwe, four photographers on routine
news assignments in major southern Africa cities were assaulted by security
officials in the past two weeks. The details differ, but the heavy-handed
actions in each case reflect a belief among those responsible for security that
they are above the law and not publicly accountable. These recent attacks in
southern Africa also highlight a wider phenomenon: Every day, somewhere in the
world, news photographers are subjected to physical abuse by security and
public officials who wish to suppress or control the powerful message delivered
by images.

South Africa is in the midst of one of its
most important political events--the ruling African National Congress's Mangaung
elective conference, which takes place once every five years to shape policy
and elect new leadership. Because of the
power of the ANC as South Africa's leading political party, the conference
holds not only the future of the party in its hands, but also the future of
South Africa.

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South African journalists and civil society
groups were uneasy this month amid rumors that the Protection
of State Information Bill, commonly known as the Secrecy Bill, would pass
the Upper House of parliament, the last step before a presidential signature.
Since 2008, journalists and civil society have lobbied
against the bill, which many fear would spell the end of investigative
journalism. A number of these fears have been alleviated by nearly 200
amendments to the draft since its inception, according to the communications
director of the ruling African National Congress's (ANC) parliamentary caucus, Moloto Mothapo.